I was finally able to download my SD card to my desktop. Got back yesterday afternoon after leaving on Thursday to check in to The Texas Inn in Tilden. Friday was orientation at 11 am for Archery Either Sex Deer. About twenty-five showed up to standby for both Choke Canyon and James Daughtry. There was one no show group for Choke Canyon, and three standby spots chosen for James Daughtry. For Choke Canyon, there were three groups of three or four hunters each. I was the only solo hunter. I was selected first. I requsted Unit 1, the area closest to the dam, with a highline running north and south. I met the group next to me and exchanged phone numbers for texting in case they wanted to use my game cart. As of Saturday, he texted that he had not taken a deer, but I never checked with the biologist Austin Killam about what critters were taken during the hunt.
During the four day hunt, the wind shifted daily, and most days except Friday morning were hot. Friday after orientation, I did not hunt. Instead, I scouted and set up two spots near the highline, throwing out corn at each. My plan was to ground hunt with a crossbow, and to bow hunt from my Millenium tripod and for spot and stalk. I ended up not using the tripod for fear of falling four hours from home by myself.
Saturday morning, I set up near a sendero on a hill overlooking a trail with a rub. At first light, one doe came out from the left at twenty yards feeding. After a while, she turned to look back at a big buck coming in through the brush straight ahead about fifty yards out. As I desperately tried to find him in my scope to make sure he was legal, he wheeled and bolted off to the left, never to be seen on the hoof again. I wasn't sure how big he was, but he seemed pretty darn big in the dark grey dawn for the split second I saw him. Later, a three point came out to feed. Saturday afternoon, I hunted there again, and saw a few does but no bucks. The weird part was a cat came sneaking down a trail. He didn't look like a bobcat or house cat, so I looked on google under Jaguarundi, and he seemed to match what I saw.
Sunday morning, wind had shifted from south to north, so I set up on the south end of the sendero facing downhill. The was no activity until about 8 am. I rattled in two 8 point bucks that I had in my sights at 25 yards. First one had a nice high orange/brown rack about 14 inches wide. The second 8 was about 16 inches wide with heavy dark antlers. I decided I wanted the big dude from Friday morning, so I passed on him. At the same setup, a high forkey came in to rattling later. Then, I took my bow and walked down the road all the way towards the dam. At a culvert in the road where there was a fresh rub, I jumped a 14 inch 8 point that ran across the road twenty yards in front of me.
Later Saturday afternoon, after an unsucessfil hunt in a pop-up at a waterhole, I pulled the SD card from spot number one and looked at it back at the Texan Inn when I got back. I had pics of lots of does pigging out on corn I had put out in front of my spot on Friday night. When I saw the big ten point right there, together with his black cat buddy, I could not sleep trying to figure out how I would get him to fit in my vehicle, cart him four hunderd yards uphill and where I would mount him on the wall.
Monday morning was foggy and cool. I was locked in concentrating on sneaking in quietly and being ready but calm when the ten point would cruise by. Although I eventually saw a few does ansd rattled in a spike, neither the buck or the cat showed up. The corn had been gobbled up the night before, and the party was over. The most fun a hunter in his 70s can have with his clothes on, like landing on another planet.
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